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1. Emotions vs. Moods
Emotions and moods are both types of affect, but they differ in key ways.
. Cause: Emotions are typically caused by a specific event or person. For example, you might feel angry because a coworker criticized your work. Moods, on the other hand, often have a general or unclear cause. You might wake up feeling grumpy for no apparent reason.
. Duration: Emotions are brief, lasting only for seconds or minutes. Moods are more enduring, lasting for hours or even days.
. Specificity: Emotions are specific and numerous (e.g., anger, fear, happiness, sadness). Moods are more general, usually categorized into broad positive or negative dimensions.
. Expression: Emotions are often accompanied by distinct facial expressions and actions (like smiling when happy). Moods are less likely to be indicated by specific expressions.
In short, think of an emotion as a sharp, intense reaction to something specific, while a mood is a more general, longer-lasting feeling that's not necessarily tied to a particular event.
2. Sources of Emotions and Moods
Several factors can influence our emotions and moods.
. Personality: People have built-in tendencies to experience certain moods and emotions. Those high in neuroticism, for example, tend to experience more negative emotions.
. Time of Day & Day of the Week: For most people, positive affect tends to peak around the middle of the day and toward the end of the week.
. Stress: Even low levels of chronic stress can negatively impact moods.
. Social Activities: Engaging in social activities generally increases positive moods.
. Sleep: Poor sleep quality and quantity can increase negative emotions and reduce alertness.
. Exercise: Physical activity can improve positive moods, especially for those who are depressed.
. Age: Older individuals tend to experience fewer negative emotions and more stable, positive moods.
. Weather: While often believed to be a major factor, the weather's effect on mood is generally small for most people. This is known as an illusory correlation.
3. Impact of Emotional Labor on Employees
Emotional labor is the process of managing feelings and expressions to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job. For instance, a flight attendant is expected to be cheerful and calm, even with rude passengers. This can have significant impacts.
. Emotional Dissonance: This occurs when employees have to project one emotion while feeling another. This internal conflict is stressful and mentally draining.
. Burnout: Constant emotional labor can lead to exhaustion, cynicism, and a sense of ineffectiveness, which are the core components of burnout.
. Stress and Health Issues: The effort required to manage emotions can lead to increased stress, anxiety, and even physical health problems over time.
The primary challenge is the difference between surface acting (hiding your true feelings) and deep acting (trying to genuinely change your feelings). Surface acting is particularly draining and linked to worse health outcomes.
4. Affective Events Theory (AET)
Affective Events Theory (AET) proposes that workplace events cause emotional reactions in employees, which in turn influence their attitudes and behaviors.
The theory's framework is as follows:
. Workplace Events: The work environment (e.g., daily hassles, uplifting moments, interactions with colleagues, feedback) creates events.
. Emotional Reactions: These events trigger positive or negative emotional reactions. Personality and mood can influence the intensity of these reactions.
. influence on Attitudes & Behaviors: These emotions influence job satisfaction and job performance. For example, an accumulation of negative emotional events might lead to decreased job satisfaction, while a single positive event could spark a creative idea (a performance-enhancing behavior).
AET highlights that employees' emotions are not just random occurrences; they are responses to things that happen at work, and these responses have tangible consequences.
5. Emotional Intelligence (EI)
Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the ability to perceive, understand, and regulate one's own emotions and the emotions of others. It's a key indicator of social functioning and job performance, especially in roles requiring significant interpersonal interaction.
EI is generally composed of four key dimensions:
. Perceive Emotions (Self-Awareness): The ability to recognize your own emotions as they happen.
. Understand Emotions (Social Awareness): The ability to comprehend the meaning of emotions, how they combine, and how they affect others. This includes empathy.
. Manage Emotions (Self-Management): The ability to regulate your own emotions, calming yourself when angry or anxious.
. Use Emotions (Relationship Management): The ability to use emotions to facilitate thinking, guide behavior, and manage relationships effectively.
High EI is associated with better
leadership, teamwork, and overall job performance.
6. Strategies for Emotion Regulation
Emotion regulation involves identifying and modifying the emotions you feel. Common strategies include:
. Surface Acting: Hiding your inner feelings and faking an emotional expression (e.g., smiling at a customer when you're annoyed). This is generally not effective and can be draining.
. Deep Acting: Trying to modify your inner feelings to match the required emotional display (e.g., trying to find a reason to feel genuine empathy for a customer). This is more effective but still requires effort.
. Cognitive Reappraisal: Re-framing a situation to change its emotional impact. For example, if you're anxious about a presentation, you might re-frame it as an opportunity to share your expertise. This is a very effective strategy.
. Emotional Suppression: Intentionally trying to push away or ignore unwanted emotions. This is often ineffective and can backfire, making the emotion stronger.
. Social Sharing (Venting): Expressing your emotions to others to get support or a new perspective. This can be helpful but can also worsen emotions if it just leads to co-ruminating on the negative.
7. Person–Job Fit vs. Person–Organization Fit
These two concepts focus on matching an individual to different aspects of the work environment.
. Person–Job Fit (P-J Fit): This refers to the compatibility between an individual's personality, knowledge, skills, and abilities and the requirements of a specific job. For example, a creative, detail-oriented person would be a good fit for a graphic design role. High P-J fit is strongly related to job satisfaction and performance in that specific role.
. Person–Organization Fit (P-O Fit): This refers to the compatibility between an individual's values, personality, and beliefs and the culture, norms, and values of the entire organization. For instance, someone who values innovation and autonomy would fit well in a dynamic tech startup but might not fit well in a highly bureaucratic government agency. High P-O fit is a strong predictor of organizational commitment and lower turnover.
In essence, P-J fit is about the task, while P-O fit is about the culture.
8. Personality: Definition, Measurement, and Shaping Factors
Personality is the sum of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others. It's often described in terms of measurable traits a person exhibits.
Measurement
Personality is most commonly measured through:
. Self-Report Surveys: Individuals rate themselves on a series of statements (e.g., "I am outgoing and social"). These are easy to administer but can be prone to faking or inaccurate self-assessment.
. Observer-Ratings Surveys: A coworker or another observer provides an independent assessment of the individual's personality. These ratings are often better predictors of job success than self-reports.
Shaping Factors
Personality is shaped by two primary factors:
. Heredity (Nature): This refers to factors determined at conception. Research on twins suggests that genetics accounts for a significant portion of our personality traits.
. Environment (Nurture): This includes the culture we grow up in, our family, friends, and social groups, and other life experiences. The environment influences how our genetic predispositions are expressed.
Most researchers agree that personality is a result of the interaction between both heredity and environment.
9. Strengths and Weaknesses of Personality Frameworks
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
+ Strengths: Extremely popular and widely used for self-awareness and team-building. It's intuitive and easy to understand.
- Weaknesses: It is not a valid predictor of job performance. It forces a person into one type or another (e.g., you are either extraverted or introverted, with no in-between), lacks reliability (people often get different results when re-taking the test), and the results are unrelated to job performance.
The Big Five Model
This model proposes that personality can be described by five basic dimensions: Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (OCEAN).
+ Strengths: Has strong research support and has been shown to predict important work outcomes. Conscientiousness, in particular, is a strong predictor of job performance across most occupations.
- Weaknesses: It may not capture all the nuances of personality. The model is descriptive but doesn't offer much insight into why people behave the way they do.
The Dark Triad
This framework describes three socially undesirable traits: Machiavellianism (pragmatic, emotionally distant, believes ends justify means), Narcissism (arrogant, entitled, needs admiration), and Psychopathy (lack of concern for others, lack of guilt or remorse).
+ Strengths: It is useful for understanding counterproductive work behaviors (e.g., bullying, theft, manipulation). It helps explain the "dark side" of personality in the workplace.
- Weaknesses: The terminology can be overly negative and stigmatizing. These traits, while undesirable, can sometimes be associated with short-term
leadership emergence or success in certain contexts, which complicates their direct application.
10. How the Situation Affects Personality and Behavior
The extent to which personality predicts behavior depends heavily on the situation. This relationship is best explained by two theories:
. Situation Strength Theory: This theory proposes that the way personality translates into behavior depends on the strength of the situation. Strong situations have clear rules and cues about how to behave, which pressure individuals to act in a certain way, thus masking personality differences. Weak situations are more ambiguous and have fewer cues, allowing individual personality traits to more freely predict behavior.
Situation strength has four elements:
+ Clarity: Cues about work duties are available and easy to understand.
+ Consistency: Cues are not contradictory.
+ Constraints: An individual's freedom to decide or act is limited.
+ Consequences: Decisions and actions have important implications.
For example, behavior during a fire drill (a strong situation) is dictated by rules, not personality. In contrast, behavior at an office party (a weak situation) is more likely to be influenced by personality.
. Trait Activation Theory (TAT): This theory predicts that some situations, events, or interventions "activate" a trait more than others. For example, a job that requires creative problem-solving will activate the trait of "Openness to Experience," making it a relevant predictor of performance in that specific context. A job that offers a lot of social interaction will activate "Extraversion." Essentially, personality traits are most relevant and predictive in situations that provide opportunities for their expression.